Wasim Jaffer rejects communal approach allegations

Wasim Jaffer. Pic/Bipin Kokate

Former India opener Wasim Jaffer, who recently resigned as Uttarakhand head coach, dismissed allegations about him bringing Maulvis to the team's training sessions and team selection interference.

Jaffer, 42, who scored 19,410 first-class runs, said the charge of favouring Muslim players, which was levelled by Cricket Association of Uttarakhand Secretary Mahim Verma in a media report, had caused him immense pain.

He addressed the media at a virtual press conference on Wednesday. "First of all, they said the Maulvis came there in a bio-bubble and we offered namaz. Let me tell you, the Maulvi, Maulana, who came on two or three Fridays during the camp in Dehradun was not called by me. It was Iqbal Abdulla [Uttarakhand all-rounder] who sought permission from the team manager [Navneet Mishra] and me only for the Friday prayer. While we do our daily prayers in the room, the Friday prayers have to be done in a gathering, so he [Abdulla] thought it would be better if someone comes over to facilitate them. And we did namaz in the dressing room for five minutes after nets. If I were communal, I could have adjusted the practice according to our prayer timings, but that's not the way I am," Jaffer clarified.

Jaffer, who retired from first-class cricket last season, was in his first year as Uttarakhand coach. He also stressed that he did not tell players to raise slogans associated with religion and instead use slogans like ‘Come on, Uttarakhand'. There was no such [chants] like ‘Jai Hanuman' or ‘Jai Shri Ram'. This is false and baseless. If there was a communal angle, I would have told them to say, ‘Allah-o-Akbar'," he added.